Senior Chief Petty Officer James Hatch was one of the most elite warriors in the U.S. military — a Navy SEAL with decades of combat experience. Then one mission nearly killed him.

In July 2009, Hatch led a team deep into Afghanistan's Paktika province searching for Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who had gone missing nine days earlier. His team was taking heavy fire before they even hit the ground. In the chaos of the firefight, an enemy bullet struck Hatch in the right leg — just above the knee — shattering his femur. The force of the impact flung him through the air. As he fell, he told himself not to scream because it would give away the positions of his teammates. His lungs filled with air and he couldn't help it. To manage the excruciating pain on the battlefield, medics gave him what was standard military issue at the time — a fentanyl lollipop. Known medically as oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate, these were real, FDA-approved pain relief tools carried by U.S. combat medics. The drug absorbs rapidly through the mouth, making it faster and more effective in the field than a needle injection, especially when shock is constricting blood vessels. The military has since replaced them with a newer, safer alternative. Hatch survived, but his career as a SEAL was over. He endured 18 surgeries, still walks with a limp, and battled a depression he nearly didn't survive. He went on to found Spike's K9 Fund to support military working dogs, wrote a book about his journey called Touching the Dragon, and later enrolled at Yale University at the age of 52. The photo of him with the fentanyl lollipop is real. The story behind it is one of sacrifice, pain, and an extraordinary will to keep living.